Richard Wakefield has taught college literature for thirty-eight years and since 1985 has been Professor of Humanities at Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Washington. For twenty-nine years he was a literary critic for the Seattle Times. His first poetry collection "East of Early Winters" (University of Evansville Press), won the Richard Wilbur Award. His second collection, "A Vertical Mile" (Able Muse Press), was short-listed for the Poets Prize.Busy Being DanI'm busy being Dan mom. There are ducks

parading in Dan's head, so Joshua

can be a line of ducklings. Joshua

is smaller, so he has to let Dan pick,

but Dan lets him pretend. And here's the fort

for ducks that Dan made. Josh said, “Can I see?”

“Good asking, Josh,” Dan said supportively

because big brothers say that – but he's short,

so no Josh couldn't. And when Josh climbed out

Dan said he was a duck, and ducks stay put.

Mom, there are cheetahs out there. This can't be

about what ducks want; not in cat country.

Josh makes a good duck; he goes everywhere.

But ducks aren't good at holding an idea –

Kathryn Jacobs is a poet, professor, and editor of The Road Not Taken. Her fifth book, Wedged Elephant, was published last year by Kelsay Press.

Late BloomerThe bees won’t coin my pollen into gold.

The sun is gone? I’ll blossom for the moon,

whose light is just as beautiful, though cold.

The bees won’t coin my pollen into gold.

For moths or frost, the heedless buds unfold

their hidden hearts as if it still were June.

The bees won’t coin my pollen into gold.

The sun is gone. I’ll blossom for the moon.

Susan McLean is an English professor at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. Her poetry has appeared in two books, The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the Knife, and one chapbook, Holding Patterns. Her translations of poems by the Latin poet Martial appeared in Selected Epigrams (U. of Wisconsin Press, 2014).

John Beaton writes metrical poetry and his work has been widely published in media as diverse as Able Muse and Gray’s Sporting Journal. He writes a monthly poetry page for the magazine Eyes on BC and served for four years as moderator of one of the internet's most reputable poetry workshops. He is a spoken word performer and a poet member of the band Celtic Chaos. His poetry has won numerous awards, including the 2015 String Poet Prize and the 2012 Able Muse Write Prize for Poetry. He was raised in the Scottish Highlands and lives in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island.

Jaywalk

Glass towers, glossy-gray sky,

gray suits humming up the elevator shafts;

bankers all abuzz with business ties

and tasseled shoes—fancy handkerchiefs.
My corduroy jacket’s brown—

I get looks. I look a little lost I guess.

Where’s the guide who knows his way around

down here in the wild gray wilderness?

Black cherry—back in the Park—

six cedar waxwings lined on the lending branch,

passing a berry along…no joke…

sharing the fruit, enjoying their lunch.

My song’s all bark, lit lichen

after rain, dark green leaves—melody and words.

Gray suits, glass banks—I must have taken

a wrong turn. My pitch is for the birds.

John Perrault is the author of The Ballad of Louis Wagner (Peter Randall Publisher), Here Comes the Old Man Now (Oyster River Press), and Jefferson's Dream (Hobblebush Books.) HIs poems have appeared in Christian Science Monitor, Commonweal, Orbis, Blue Unicorn, and elsewhere. He was Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH, 2003-2005. www.johnperrault.comThe Only Watchmaker

From dust to dust. So, what do we matter?
Is there extraterrestrial chatter?

SETI seeks signals to corroborate

Patterns, that cannot come from dark matter.
All life began from chemical batter.

But every human being has the same fate

Since, ultimately, all life is matter.
Forensics collects and tests blood splatter

From a dead man, sprayed on a basement gate.

From dust to dust. So, what does he matter?
Palliative care begins—last hope shatters.

The oncologist does not forecast dates.

Does it, or does it not, really matter?
The rain beats down in relentless patter,

However early in life or how late.

From dust to dust, so what does it matter

Since ultimately, all life is matter?

Peter C. Venable has written both free and metric verse for over fifty years. He has been published in Windhover, Third Wednesday, Time of Singing, The Merton Seasonal, forthcoming in The Anglican Theological Review, and others. His fascination with rhyme and meter began in college, absorbing Donne, Milton, Blake et al. In addition, he finds lyrics in anthems and especially hymns edifying. William Cowper and Emily Dickenson are favorites.

SmokeThe hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;

farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell

rang bells within (the din was in) my mind, and I can't say

if what we had was good or bad, or where it is today ...

The endless days of summer's haze I still recall today;

she spoke and smoky skies stood still as summer slipped away ...

Michael R. Burch’s poems have been translated into nine languages and set to music by the composers Alexander Comitas and Seth Wright. Burch’s poems, essays, articles and letters have appeared more than 2,000 times around the globe in publications which include TIME, USA Today, BBC Radio 3, The Hindu, Kritya, Gostinaya, Light, The Lyric, Measure, Angle, Black Medina, The Chariton Review, Poet Lore, The Chimaera, Poem Today, Verse Weekly, ByLine, Unlikely Stories and Writer’s Digest—The Year’s Best Writing. He also edits and publishes www.thehypertexts.com.

(previously published in Unsplendid)
Robin Helweg-Larsen is British-born but Bahamian-raised. His education came from good schools, hitchhiking on five continents and working all over the place. His poetry has mostly been published in the UK, but also in the US, Canada, Australia and India. He lives in his hometown of Governor's Harbour on Eleuthera.

Limericks & Lighthearted Verse

Curriculum Vitae

(On reading a newspaper description of a

man as 'poet, novelist, and wine-merchant'.)A person of no little brain

Said, “I pen a most poignant quatrain,

And my novels excel

Those of Tartt and Mantel −

5% off this fine dry champagne?”

Deflational

.. . . regrets he is unable to reply

personally owing to pressure of time.'

- Rejection slipAn editor, stiff and unmatey,

Who discovered that Time could be weighty

Felt its pressure increase

Till his recent decease

Squashed flat as a pancake at eighty,

Parallel LivesThe Life Of RileyEton, Oxford, then banking, where soon

Sub-prime profits began to balloon.

Though such business exploded

It still left me loaded −

I work twice a week until noon.
I can have a safe seat any day

(The party has bills it must pay.)

With my knowledge and nous

I shall rise in the House

And No. 10’s not far away.

The Life of MurphyI survived in a slum and sink school,

Drank and loved like a fish and a fool.

My brain was for hire

Till I had to retire

Deep in debt, and beginning to drool.
This care home’s the absolute pits,

The inmates have all lost their wits.

My relations regret

I’ve not snuffed it yet

And the court keeps on issuing writs.

Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England, and edits the quarterly Lighten Up Online. His verse has appeared in a wide variety of British magazines and anthologies as well as UK, European, and North American web venues such as Amsterdam Quarterly, Angle, Light, The Asses of Parnassus, The New Verse News, Parody, Per Contra, The Rotary Dial, and Snakeskin.

Ranald Barnicot has an MA in Classics from Balliol College, Oxford and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Birkbeck College, London. He has worked as a teacher of EFL/ESL in Spain, Portugal, Italy and the UK. He is now retired and has published or is due to publish many original poems and translations of Catullus, Horace, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Lorca, Vallejo and Violante do Céu and La Compiuta Donzella in Priapus, Acumen, Poetry Strasbourg Review, Transference, Brooklyn Rail In Translation, Ezra, The Rotary Dial, Sentinel, Poetry Salzburg Review, The French Literary Review, Orbis and Metamorphoses. And we look forward to his new collection of translations in a book form by Alba Press in early 2019. Mr. Liang Zongdai /Liang Chung-Tai/ Liang Tsong-tai (梁宗岱，1903 - 1983)，born in Baise, Guangxi, on July14 (lunar calendar ), 1903, was a famous Chinese poet and translator, the best Chinese poetry friend of Romain Rolland and Paul Valery. Liang Zongdai emerged as a well acknowledged poet during the “May 4th Movement” period, who had great achievements both in translation and in poetics. But for a long time after the 1949, he had almost been ignored by the literary world due to some historical reasons and it was not until the 1980s that his poems, his contribution to translation and his poetical theory and criticism were brought under the spotlight again.

Liang’s poem is a natural flow from his heart and blended well with his unique experiences, his sentiments, his philosophy, his ideology and his gift for poetic writing. As a Chinese famous poet, Liang Zongdai had two collections of poems as the representative works of his poetry: the Evening Prayer(written in the 1920s in modern free style with 20 poems) and the Reed Flute Breeze(written in the 1940s in traditional Chinese style with 50poems）.

According to the nature and characteristics of poetry, based on the three principles of Three Beauties (beauty in sense; beauty in sound and beauty in form) in poetry translation advocated by Mr. Xu Yanchong (许渊冲), one of the most distinguished Chinese poetry translators, our translation has taken one more beauty in consideration, namely, the beauty in emotion, which is the top priority for our translation. Liang Zongdai believes that the translator must have emotional echoes with the original poem before applying language skills and artistic style in order to reproduce the original charm of the poem. Besides, two strategies are also applied in the translation: 1) replacing abstract meanings and interpreting profound philosophy or religious inspiration and morals with vivid images; 2) reasonable extending of imagination based on the original; 3) When it comes to the Chinese specific culture, we use foreignization as much as possible to preserve the characteristics, mystery and the power of discourse of the national culture.

Of entangled vines with a start in fright.
“Woo woo, Woo woo,” the sound of a nite owl,

Sad and horrific.

Attempts to call back the sick souls of the dying?

To curse the dreams of all beings?

Or to make unreasonable groaning?
“Yi woo, Yi woo,” sounds sad and horrifying.

I am not dying,

How can you call back my soul wandering?

But my dreams inexhaustible,

The illusory dreams of the feeble,

Have all been cursed by you, a spirit of evil.

Take my wandering soul away.

How can I, too

Spare no effort to curse the human life

With “Woo woo, Woo woo”?

Translator, Cheng Sheng ( 程晟，1989— ) a Master of Translation and Interpretation (MTI) and once an English teacher in the Foreign Language College of Guangxi University of Nationalities, China. Two from Liang's 'Reed Flute Breeze' collection,

Prof. Cheng Sheng（程晟，1989—) , an English Professor in the English Department in Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities(右江民族医学院) in Guangxi of China, and also an expert on the poet and translator of his fellow townsman, mainly finished Part One: the Reed Flute Breeze and Part Three: Chinese SonnetsJade Tower Love

SixPracticing soaring hard for a race,

I flied almost first to the holy place.

Madly distracted by your charming gaze

Like a tower teetering I almost fell in daze.

Charmed by lofty mountains with flowing water in haze,

Why I bother with worldly gossips spread apace?

Ruined halfway as I might be for you smile of grace,

I would rather sink with no empty fame and false face.

African Poetry with Tendai Rinos Mwanaka

SOCIAL MEDIA SWAMPMy eyes start to burn as I

Recount how many hours I’ve

Been sucked into this quicksand

Of comparison, advertising and

Collective loathing.
I thought I came to this place to

Be inspired by successes

To be motivated to be my best.

But all I found were masks,

Concealing people who were dying

Inside.

Pride wouldn’t let them show it on the

Outside

Where people can see

That this solid mansion is only made of bricks

And on the inside hollow.

This beach is made of plastic refuse

And it’s not a place for souls to go.

Maybe it’s a sign I should get off my phone

And wash off the swamp’s grimy flow.

PLASTIC SOLDIERSThe one too young to know the conflict's cause,

They wage war and do as they're told.

In the West they play make-believe battle,

With toy guns and plastic soldiers,

Not knowing across the sea,

There lives those that have it as reality.

Africa loses her children to those who see her young as expendable figurines,

Khwela Nelisa Khethokuhle is a 21 year-old from a small town in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. She is an introvert and enjoys spending her time reading and reflecting. Her interests include languages, astronomy, literature, art and gothic calligraphy. Her poetry is inspired by poets such as Sara Teasdale and Emily Dickinson. She is studying for her first degree at University of Cape Town.

I love poetry

Metaphors paint portraits in our dull minds

Onomatopoeias plays DJ to interesting sounds

Similes photograph horrid or wonderful comparisons

Personification acts out human tragedies, comedies...

Rhyming couplets stick together as if they're slow dancing

Assonance's choir of vowels entertains listeners

that's why I love poetry

Eyethu Mfazwe is a spoken word artist from East London, South Africa. She is studying a BA degree at the University of the Free State. Eyethu is a member of and was the Secretary-General for Enactus UFS in 2017. She was also a member of Psychology Students Association.

The natureIcy Icy heart?

Plea

Bad lucked dealing everywhere

Promise still

Who's the surgery for?

All need performance.

Lay mandates at your desk.

Sinister mission impossible.

WE ARE ALL THE SAME

Saying, "We are all the same.

Metronome and tempo measurements.

Angst.

Hi! Anna!

Remember back the sober days.

Reminisce in november the october days.

Novice nobel intentions.

Rocky path sections.

Pad pals.

Temples.

Deduce destructive notions to dates.

Cold feet, pulling her leg.

Break a leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My love.
Love options.Oh! We! My mister

Councilman minister!

Rose growing on concrete.

The on and on song.

Over and over.

Building up courage to exercise, No.

My name in that air. Aired out!

Forgive card. Will you play the forgive card?

But love. Ah! There we go.

We say it's skin deep momentarily.

On the call?

On the call?

She and I had few bible scriptures.

To share.

On the way...................
Maiketso Augustinus Ntsholi. I am Poet in South Africa. I am a 27 year old man in Business Management. I write poetry in both Sotho vernac and English.

Mhondera Chenjerai is a Writer (novelist, author, poet, playwright, song-writer) an Actor and Performing Poet, published in Best New African Poets 2015 Anthology, Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology, and several online journals. He is a Patron and Founder of International Writers Association (IWA), formerly Young Writers Club. Helps to nurture talents and publishes upcoming writers through his literary Organisation. He is a Citizen of the World. His upcoming book of quotes entitled A Case of Love and Hate, will be published by Mwanaka Media and Publishing

Asian Poetrywith Rameeza Nasim

*Heo Nanseolhean(1563-1589)

If women have han in their hearts—To be born a woman

To be born in the Chosǒn Period

To be the wife of a husband
— frost will come in May.
Father let me study poetry with my brothers

until I married Kim Song Lip and I put it aside.

Waiting for my faithless husband, father said
Write a poem
ask yourself,
Who am I?
*Heo Nanseolhean (1563-1589), born Heo Chohui, was a prominent Korean Female poet of the mid Chosǒn dynasty.

Unmasked Anthology, 2017Tanya (Hyonhye) Ko Hong, poet, translator and cultural curator, has been published in Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, Entropy, Cultural Weekly, Korea Times, Korea Central Daily News, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently, Mother to Myself, A collection of poems in Korean (Prunsasang Press, 2015). Her poem, “Comfort Woman” got honorable mention in the 2015 Women’s National Book Association. Tanya is an ongoing advocate of bilingual poetry, promoting the work of immigrant poets. She lives Palos Verdes, CA.www.tanyakohong.comEntirety::

Mikaela Norkus, a high school student in Aurora, Ontario, her poetic ramblings can be found at https://sugarandblackberries.wordpress.com. She uses poetry as a way of documenting her own life, as well as the lives of people who are unable to do so for themselves. When not writing poems, she is snowboarding down steep slopes throughout the winter season, watching Netflix, or leaping into a good book.

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is an eight-time Pushcart nominee and a four-time Best of the Net nominee. She is the author of 5 collections of poetry, along with several chapbooks, and the winning chapbook in The Red Ochre Chapbook Contest, “Before I Go to Sleep”, Her latest collections slated for publication this year with Main Street Rag are “An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium” and “ In the Making of Goodbyes”, Clare Songbird Press. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of online, print magazines and anthologies. She is the Assistant Editor for The Orchards Poetry Journal. According to family lore she is a direct descendantof Robert Louis Stevenson. www.clgrellaspoetry.com

DIGGING DEEPThey say I sow unruly seeds,

talk gibberish to trees,

I give their children gifts of weeds.
They see me circling ‘round the cabbages,